All Hallows Read

Neil Gaiman reminds me of Snape a little bit, maybe I'm the only one. 

Last year sci-fi author Neil Gaiman started a tradition buy making video to inspire people to give scary books away on Halloween, dubbing the new practice, "All Hallows Read." 

Neil talks about this great tradition in the video below. He also says that, "Candy is important, fake blood is important," but you'll just have to watch the video to see what else is important. 

Here are some scary books that I found hard to put down:

1) The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein, by Theodore Roszak - Much has been written about the weak women in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This book turns the original monster classic on it's head and tells a different story by from the point of view of the woman who married Dr. Frankenstein (the creator, not the monster). It's engrossing. It's also ironic that although this tale is told from the point of view of a woman, it was written by a man, and the original work by Mary Shelley is the other way around.

2) The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - The story starts in 1972 when a young girl finds an antique book and a pile of decaying letters that start her on a chase after the history of Vlad the Impaler. She learns that her family has been caught up in this quest and now it's up to her. This is a brilliant thriller that keeps your heart racing and your eyes reading.

3) The Awareness and Deadly Other Tales by Terrie Farley Moran - This collection of short stories yields one surprise after another. My favorite is the title story where justice is meted in a supernatural way. (The author also has a short story in the current issue of Alfred Hitchcock Magazine, called Jake Says Hello.)

4)  Game of Thrones by George RR Martin - Even after watching the HBO series first, I couldn't put this book down and I pretty much knew what was going to happen. This story brings some serious drama and besides, 'Winter is Coming'.

What are your favorite scary books? Do you plan to give any away on Halloween?